In a known mini-oscillator comprising a crystal resonator plate mounted on a thin film substrate of a hybrid integrated circuit device, the substrate is mounted in an open header or support container for supporting the mini-oscillator on another substrate, such as a printed circuit board. More specifically, the thin film substrate is bonded to a bottom wall of the container by heat-cured thermally conductive epoxy adhesive, which also functions as a heat sink for thin film and integrated circuits on the substrate. Further, the container includes flexible relatively thin leads which project internally of the container and which are formed and bonded, by heat-cured electrically conductive epoxy adhesive, to respective contact pads on the thin film substrate. The thin leads are electrically connected to rigid relatively thick support leads which project externally of the container for mounting the container, and thus the mini-oscillator, on the printed circuit board. When fabrication of the mini-oscillator has been completed, a cover member is mounted over the open container and the mini-oscillator is hermetically sealed within the container. A mini-oscillator of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,033 issued to the same assignee as the subject application.
In an initial stage of the manufacture of the above-described mini-oscillator, the thermally conductive epoxy adhesive is dispensed adjacent the center of the bottom wall of the support container and the thin film substrate then is positioned on the bottom wall of the container. Heretofore, the thin film substrate then has been manually pressed against the container bottom wall to cause spreading of the adhesive between the substrate and the bottom wall, prior to forming the flexible thin leads of the container. The flexible thin leads then have been formed with a manual bending tool (e.g., tweezers) from an essentially straight-line configuration into a bent configuration in which free end portions of the leads can be bonded to the contact pads on the thin film substrate.
A disadvantage of the foregoing procedure is that, in the manual pressing of the thin film substrate against the container bottom wall, extreme care must be exercised so as not to engage and damage the thin film and integrated circuits on the substrate. In addition, if the substrate is not pressed uniformly against the container bottom wall so as to produce essentially uniform spreading of the adhesive between the substrate and the bottom wall, the heat-curing rate and the effectiveness of the adhesive as a heat sink are reduced. Further, in the manual bending of the thin leads, the leads tend to break off at points at which they project from the support container and/or to be scratched or otherwise damaged by the manual bending tool. The manual forming of the leads also is relatively slow and inefficient, and therefore not suitable where large production volumes are involved. In this regard, the manual forming of the leads cannot be accomplished readily because sidewalls of the container project upward above the thin film substrate therein closely adjacent the contact pads, making access to the contact pads and the forming of the outer free end portions of the leads into firm engagement with the contact pads extremely difficult.
Accordingly, a purpose of this invention is to provide new and improved methods of and apparatus for simultaneously forming the thin flexible leads of the mini-oscillator support container into a configuration in which outer end portions of the leads readily can be bonded to the contact pads of the mini-oscillator thin film substrate. At the same time, the thin film substrate is pressed uniformly against the bottom wall of the container so as to spread the thermally conductive epoxy adhesive between the substrate and the bottom wall into a uniform layer therebetween.